I was watching the Tour de France on Tuesday morning as it swept through the city of Charleroi, in Belgium. My mind went back to a nasty morning in 2004, at a staging area in the very same Charleroi, when I had a taste of the grim war being fought by Lance Armstrong’s minions. Totally by coincidence, I am reading the new book about the battle of Waterloo, by Bernard Cornwell. Another conqueror also passed through Charleroi that fateful month of June, 1815. His name was Napoleon Bonaparte. So now they are fused in my mind, the man on horseback, the man on the bike. As the Tour began in 2004, a new book came out, “L.A. Confidentiel: Les Secrets de Lance Armstrong,” by David Walsh and Pierre Ballester, containing many accusations of doping by Armstrong and his team. The book was only in French. I bought a copy at the Brussels Airport and was reading it as the Tour began in Liege. One of the most convincing sections was about an Irish masseuse, Emma O’Reilly, who recalled how Armstrong had tested positive for steroids in 1999, only to have a doctor file a note saying Armstrong had been using a form of steroids to combat saddle sores, an occupational hazard. If anybody knew whether Armstrong had saddle sores, it would be his masseuse, O’Reilly said -- and he did not. She described the panic in the Armstrong bus about the positive test, until a servile world cycling federation accepted the doctor’s ludicrous note, and Armstrong pedaled onward. I alluded to the negated positive. It did not go un-noticed. That drizzly morning in Charleroi, Armstrong’s lawyer-manager, Bill Stapleton, sought me out as we enjoyed coffee and croissants before the day’s stage began. He pointedly told me that Lance had never tested positive. Yes, he did, I said, for steroids. That was not a positive test, he said. I understood his legal point but more important I realized, these people are serious, and they are going to fight on every point. We all know how that ended, years later, with Lance’s confession on Oprah. I think about him while watching the Tour. I saw him win his last three titles. He was the greatest rider of his time. I suspect just about all of them cheated. I hear he has downsized, in his own private St. Helena. Napoleon also held a staging area around Charleroi, 200 years ago. He had come back from exile and had re-claimed much of the French army and was convinced his decisions would always work out. He would feint one way, go the other way, and rout the English and the Prussians. . But they stood up to him, in terrible fighting, on the road north in an area known as Waterloo. In July of 2004, I spent several nights in a motel near the battlefield but never had time to visit it. I was reading “L.A. Confidentiel” and riding in a press car with two copains and getting the cold eye from Lance’s perimeter defense.

An interesting comparison of two great egos that eventually got their comeuppance.

I recently finished Waterloo as it the topic of my History Study Groups' August meeting.

As with most historical events, it is the actions or inaction of individuals that determine the outcome.

Although the result of the battle was known, the book still had the feel of a cliff hanger. However, it was Lord Wellington’s attention to details that made the difference.

Well in advance of the war, on a non-military trip through the area of Waterloo, he made a mental note of a rise that sloped back out of sight. This would enable a small portion of his army to be visible at the crest with the remainder out of sight on the slope.

Armstrong was indeed the best cyclist of his era, maybe even when compared with other greats. Even with steroids, the tour is a tough beast to master, and his use does not diminish the magnitude of what he accomplished.

It was a given that most, if not all, cyclists were using chemical to enhance performance. Lance’s continual “holier than thou” denials were what eventually did him in. His teammates grew tired of it and his control over them.

It is most always inflated egos that do people in.

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TheRaceRadio

7/13/2015 03:37:04 am

Alan, I have to agree with you. Riding with him just became intolerable. Betsy and I saw too much.

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George Vecsey

7/9/2015 02:55:53 pm

Alan, we read the same books....having taken three years of ROTC, I love the details of the battles, outmoded now. The virtues of the column vs. the line -- rudimentary weapons, the limits of cavalry that cost the French dearly. For all that, Cornwell's writing is clumsy. He changes tenses from paragraph to paragraph. Massie's descriptions of battles involving Peter and Catherine's armies are so much better, But the military details here are terrific. Best, GV

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Sean Kelly

7/10/2015 02:54:35 am

Much like Napoleon's first exile to Elba, Armstrong is still too close for comfort. I'd love to see the disgraced pissant live out his days on St. Helena - without reporters or internet. Though I doubt the French would want to move his body to Paris and entomb him in the Hotel des Invalides when his days are over. Perhaps they could bury him in a dog park in Plano where generations of canines can give him the sort of "salute" he deserves.

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George Vecsey

7/10/2015 07:14:24 am

Dear Sean: You are not the great Irish cyclist I watched in 82-83 when I was on the Hinault-Jonathan Boyer watch? I was always grateful to Kelly and Phil Anderson and Boyer for some English.....
Either way, I understand your feelings toward Armstrong. He attacked and counter-attacked some good people who told the truth as they knew it. (I was in touch with one yesterday.It wasn't only the cheating, it was all-in attack. Having said that, I see Armstrong as a flawed human being, like me, and would like to see him have happier, wiser decades ahead of him. Thanks for your comment, GV

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TheRaceRadio

7/13/2015 03:49:04 am

Exactly George. This is not the real Sean Kelly who would be far too classy to comment like this. This is one of my tweet bots.

bruce

7/11/2015 03:34:54 am

George,

too much money involved for them to take any chances tho it didn't turn out in the end. thank goodness.

I read a bio of napoleon a few years ago. can't remember the author for the lie of me. savaged him and his rep for military genius.

in any case, Armstrong eventually met his waterloo tho it took a helluva lot longer than it should have.

and, as an aside, I went to the university of waterloo.

just watching Wimbledon final with Williams and muguruza. she's not willing to lose to Williams quite as easily as the commentators thought.

bruce

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George Vecsey

7/11/2015 05:49:39 am

Bruce: Waterloo, Ontario???
The book I'm reading depicts Napoleon in the rear as he sent his Imperial Guard up the hill to be routed. Wellington was in the front lines.
The book depicts Nappleon as prematurely old, perhaps with some aging condition, paunchy, pale, listless. The man needed steroids.
GV

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bruce

7/11/2015 06:06:10 am

george,

that's the one. it's actually a twin city with kitchener. called kitchener-waterloo or KW by locals. i'm almost an hour's drive away.

the area has a large number of people whose families were from germany. kitchener was named after the ww1 british military guy in 1916 after the locals thought the previous name, berlin, wasn't kosher.

not sure where waterloo comes from eh!

lois maxwell (moneypenny in the original james bond films), jill hennessy and lennox lewis are claimed as locals plus some other fairly well known and, oddly enough, a bunch of hockey players. another university, sir wilfrid laurier, is 1/2 mile away.

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bruce

7/11/2015 06:11:45 am

george,

forgot to add that hemorrhoids were a rather large problem aussi. i don't imagine riding his horse, vizir, would've been soothing. you can see vizir, stuffed, at les invalides in paris.

bruce

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George Vecsey

7/13/2015 03:55:41 am

That's true. There is the suggestion that he was having treatments during the battle. Unlike Lance.
GV

bruce

7/11/2015 06:18:39 am

george,

have you ever read 'the face of battle' by john keegan?

bruce

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Coach Joe Mihalich, center, runs practice

OLD JOCKS CHEERMy Hofstra pals went to a practice -- and later the new players won a thriller near buzzer. ​Please see:https://nationalsportsmedia.org/news/my-alma-mater-thrills-some-old-players-